Alleging disparity in the evaluation process for +2 results, hundreds of dropout and ex-regular students on Monday staged a demonstration in the State Capital.
Though the students wanted to march up to and gherao Naveen Niwas, the official residence of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, they were stopped by at the demonstrations venue near Master Canteen Square.
The students’ wing of the Congress party also backed the protest as the fate of the students now hangs in balance due to the alleged apathy of the State government and Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE).
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“The State government is playing with the lives of ex-regular students who have two different certificates- one pass and one fail (mark sheets). Due to such wrong evaluation, the future of the students now hangs in balance,” alleged the president of Congress Students’ wing, Yashir Nawaz.
An ex-regular student said, “We want marks to be awarded as per the marks scored in class 10 since we were not told in advance that an offline exam will be conducted. We have been neglected and cheated. Regular students, who had passed class 10 with 70 per cent marks, were awarded similar marks in +2. But many of us who scored good marks in matric exams have been marked failed,” he alleged.
Congress MLA, Suresh Routray too urged the State government to look into the grievances of the dropouts and ex-regular students.
“Nearly 7,000 to 8,000 students are demonstrating in front of the Assembly today. On June 4, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced the cancellation of +2 exams in view of the Covid-19 pandemic situation. On June 18, the CHSE came up with alternative criteria for regular students. But no announcement was made for the ex-regular students till July 31, 2021,” said Routray.
Later, the concerned minister announced that the dropout and ex-regular students will appear in the offline examination, claimed Routray.
“Due to wrong process adopted by the Council, only 26 per cent ex-regular students passed +2 exams while the pass percentage of regular students stood at 99 per cent. We demand that the results of ex-regular and dropout students be announced by taking into consideration their Class 10 scores. The government should not play with the lives of the students,” Routray added.